Another Fool
by JokerAlchemist24
Summary: Elicia Hughes, age twelve, I was going to bring back my father.- They were taking them from me, my arm and leg. I screamed, thrashing in every direction, trying to get away, escape. I knew that I was about to loss more than I ever imagined I could.
1. Chapter 1

I looked down at the circle I had drawn, the outline of the transmutation circle I had begun. The base element of the Alchemy I was beginning. I was standing on the concrete basement floor that I had drawn it on. The rest of the ingredients were surrounding me in circular pales, which I repeated in my head. Water, 35 litres. Carbon, 20kg. Ammonia, 4 litres. Lime, 1.5kg. Phosperus, 800g. Salt, 250 g. Niter, 100g. Sulphur, 80g. Fluorine, 7.5g. Iron, 5g. Silicon 3g, and then a trace amount of fifteen other elements.

My name is Elicia Hughes, age twelve, and I was going to bring back my father, using this forbidden alchemy.

I had found the notes on human transmutation in Alphonse's house back in Risembool when I was visiting Winry and Sheska. Alphonse had these notes because he was trying to get this brother back, who was taken to the other side. He wasn't currently there, but with Izumi Curtis, training, so I knew that if I took them, he wouldn't miss them. I even left a note explaining where to find them, in case something were to happen to me.

You'd think I'd know not to take this chance, from all I heard from people around me, about the Elrics. But I didn't, I needed to take this chance, or I would loss the only person I had left.

My mother was getting sick; she collapsed about a month ago. The doctor said it was severe depression that she has been dealing with since my father was killed, something that was slowly eating away at her body, killing her. I couldn't just sit by and watch, I had the power to fix it. If I could just bring back my father, she would heal. I was an Alchemist, and I had the power to do what others couldn't.

I looked over my surroundings one last time to make sure everything was in order, the ingredients, my circle, and my father's soul. For his soul I took the blood my mother had coughed up the night before, and some of her hair that had fallen out. Sure, not a beautiful picture, but she was part of him, as was I. I took a lock of my hair, and some of my blood. I remembered in Al's notes he mentioned that his brother's and his blood wasn't enough. So I thought if I added more I would be at least a step closer.

I told myself it was now or never, I clapped my hands and pushed them to the circle with almost too much force, I could feel that in my wrists. The alchemy had begun, and even now I was having regrets, but knew that it was too late to turn back. Bright lights were vibrating off the walls, and the sounds of things breaking all around me filled the room. Wind was coming from the science working all around me and then it was quiet, I looked all around me but when I looked back I saw what I had read all about in Al's notes, though it was Ed's words.

The Gate. It was a door, extremely big, aged brown stone and at the top it had a sculpture of hands holding, or grabbing at an infant child. All around me besides the door was white, and silence, that was until the gate began to open. I stepped back slowly as I saw what was inside. Eyes, a bunch of deep purple eyes, staring straight at me. Hands were extending from inside, black hands that kept moving and searching for something they could not see. It was all too late, when I noticed they were searching for me. I turned to run as they came closer, but they latched on all too fast, pulling me into the darkness of which they came. I screamed, but no one could hear me. I could hear laughing, crying, talking. The hands were holding me in place, information was being jammed into my scull, and my brain trying to decipher it all at once began to ache. I then began to feel a tug at my arm, and then my leg, I looked down and saw that the black hands were pulling on them, and I noticed all too late, that they were taking them from me, as payment. I screamed, squirming and thrashing in every direction, trying to get away, escape. I knew that I was about to lose more than I ever imagined I could.


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up with an aching pain in my leg and a pulling sensation in my side. My eyes were heavy as I pulled my hands down to clutch my waist. I felt moist liquid on my hands as they made contact with my body and I could feel my cloths tattered and ripped. Thoughts went through my head from just moment before, the things that I had seen. I forced my eyes open to see if I had done the impossible, but when my vision caught a glimpse of smoke I froze.

I could see something moving and I reached forward, not knowing what to do. It was him, I had done it. I reached my hand farther towards the man I had created, but as the smoke cleared just a little bit I froze again. It wasn't human, I had failed. There was flesh, blood, bones, it was a monster. It was breathing heavily. I searched for anything that resembled a face but could not make anything of use out. My hand dropped and hit the hard cement ground I was sitting on. I looked down knowing that my hand should have come into contact with my leg, but it was no longer there.

I was so worried about everything around me I didn't notice I was missing a limb. All the pain hit me at once, I started to scream. What have I done? what have I made? I was losing blood, and would soon bleed to death; I pulled myself together, breathing hard and tears still streaming down my sweaty face. I started to pull my body over to the stairs, trying to move the leg I did not have to help me, and every time I was hit with pain and sorrow.

I knew I would not be able to make it up the stairs; I had to come to the fact that I was going to die here, alone, and a failure. I knew what was at risk, had seen the people that tried to do the same I had, and what it had done to the people around them. I knew it all, but I was too selfish and only cared about my own desires, and now I was going to die, and hurt the ones closest to me. Just as I was about to put my head down the door at the top of the stairs swung open.

"Hello?" I could only see a shadow and was trying to block the light that was now streaming into my face with my hand. "Elicia?" It was a man's voice and he was wearing a coat. There was more than one set of feet and I could see others behind the one calling my name, but as much as I tired I couldn't put a face to the voice, no matter how much I tired I couldn't keep my eyes open. My head fell to the floor and I drifted into unconsciousness or even death.


	3. Chapter 3

I heard whispering before anything, it was a deep voice, with a few other voices I couldn't make out the gender of. The deep voice was angry sounding, agitated, frustrated. It almost sounding like the person was ranting.

"Well what the hell, do you know that if he was still alive, I would have daggers sticking out of every limb on my body and then some probably stabbed through my eyes and a few hundred through my heart? I'm her provider when her mother passes away, and now she isn't even in one piece." There was a pause, and then the man started up again. "Well we can't change anything now; get me Winry Rockbell, fast."

I heard a set of feet run off down the hall outside of the door.

"You, get me Alphonse Elric and Izumi Curtis. Call them, tell them to come to central, it's an emergency, and to make it fast." Another set of feet ran off. "And you go pick up the girl's mother. We all have to have a talk." And that's when the third set of feet ran off also.

What was going on, why was everyone running around and screaming. That's when a pain shot through my head and all the way down my body to my toes to my right leg. I clenched my teeth. Images were now going through my mind, a corpse, my left leg gone, the arms tugging it off, the eyes searching, laughing.

My eyes shot open, and went right to the Colonel, Roy Mustang. That's when it hit me; it was him yelling outside my door, giving orders. He must have come in when my body was going through that spasm. The look on his face was dreary, sorry, and twisted in a lot of pain. I looked down at his body, his fists clenched in his lap. And I realized there that he wasn't in physical pain, but mental. He was the one that was supposed to take care of me after my mother passed. And I betrayed him like this.

"Uncle Roy, I'm so-" I was cut off.

"You have no idea what you did, do you? What I have been going through. You are lucky that Winry found your note or we would have had no idea what you were doing, I wouldn't have found you, you would be dead, your mother heartbroken once again." He looked at me, the pain gone, and anger replacing it. "Elicia, the dead do not come back to life. End of story."

"Uncl-" I was cut off again.

"No, you aren't talking. I know what you were trying to do, and I know it was for your mother's good, but no. I called Winry, she's probably the only one that can ever help you walk again, I called Alphonse and Izumi to help you get back up on your feet, and your mother so she can understand, and see that you aren't dead in a basement." He got up, not looking back, and walked to the door, paused with his hand on the door handle, still facing away. "I'm sorry." And then he walked out, leaving me alone in the room.


	4. Chapter 4

I was sitting here, alone. Stuck in silence, stuck in my own head, full of deep thought and sorrow I had never felt before. The pain killers they gave me didn't work, but the pain was getting better to deal with. I was getting accustomed to the pain. Not only the physical pain, but the mental and emotional pain as well. I couldn't get my mother's face out of my head. I didn't know what I was going to tell her, or how I was going to tell her of the things I did.

In this thought of my mother, my head got heavy, my heart ached, and my eyes started to close. Was I passing out? I clenched my fists, trying to fight it, but was dreaming in seconds.

* * *

My mother was standing in front of me, smiling that beautiful smile she always wore. I stepped towards her; I haven't seen her stand in almost two weeks. I wanted her to hold me in her arms, tell me it would be okay.

I stopped in mid thought. Remembering that I lost my leg and my arm too, this was a dream. I wouldn't be able to walk towards her, or reach for her for the embrace I so longed for. And in this realization, everything turned black, smoke and lightning came from the gate I saw just the night before. I tried to run towards my mother, but collapsed instead, my leg no longer there, just a stump, wrapped in bandages.

I looked up to see my mother, still smiling at me. She was concentrating on me and only me. It was like she was oblivious to what was going on around her. I tried to reach out to her with the arm I no longer had, my heart skipped a beat.

"Mother, Mother!" Her face didn't change; her smile didn't even fade as I yelled to her so frantically. "Mother, you have to run! Run! Go!" I tried to get her to leave, but she took a step towards me, and then another.

"Elicia Dear," she put her hand to my face, stroking it. I could feel her warmth that she lost almost a month ago. Her smile so warm, her hands so soft on my scratched and bruised face. Tears began to gather in my eyes "Elicia, I love you with all my heart. You are and always were the sun in my life, the moon of which I watched even during the day." A tear fell, and she caught it with her thumb, wiping it away as if it was never there. "No matter what you go through, always remember that I love you."

And as she said this, she was gone. All that was left of her was a ghost lying in the bed. A figure that slowly dissolved away as the blackness that surrounded me engulfed the entire dream.

* * *

My eyes opened. It was suddenly hard to breath. I kept telling myself it was a dream, only a dream and nothing else. And at that very moment Uncle Roy walked into the room. His eyes looked even darker than when he was in here this morning. My breathing became heavy and uneven. I covered my eyes with my hands, tears already falling.

"Elicia…" His voice was rough, I could hear him take a few steps closer and exhale a breath he had been holding.

"She's not gone." I told him, sobbing.

"Dear, she's gone," the way he said it, was kind, very soft, but there were also tears in his eyes when I looked up.

"It's my fault." I looked at him, or in his direction, my vision was too clouded by my tears for me to be able to decipher my surroundings.

"Shhh," he came over to my bed and took me in his arms as he spoke my name, repeating it, calming me.

The last thing I remember was crying on Uncle Roy's shoulder, my mother's face flooding my mind, and his warm grasp around my small, broken frame. He was the only family I had left now and I wouldn't let him down any farther. I will make him proud.


End file.
